Israel conducts air strikes on Gaza Strip following rocket launch

Israeli forces launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on early Thursday (02.02.2023) hours after a rocket was launched from the said Palestinian territory, as per journalists and local witnesses. In response to the Israeli action, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a secular armed group, discharged a barrage of rockets.

An AFP journalist saw two more rockets launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip and according to local security sources and witnesses at least seven attacks hit a training center for the Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement, in the Al Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of the Gaza Strip.

The exchange of rocket and air strikes between Israel and Gaza came after Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir promised to take harsh action against Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails and after militants from Gaza fired at Israel last week killing 10 Palestinians in an Israeli military operation in the West Bank.

The region saw sirens sounded in Sderot, a city in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip as Israeli air defences intercepted a rocket coming from Gaza. As per Israeli rescue services, a 50-year-old woman was reported to be injured due to slipping and falling while running to the shelter. No casualties were reported in the Israeli action in the Gaza Strip.